Beer – #21 in a series – Wigram Kortegast Red Sparkling Ale

Shut up!

the Wigram Brewing Company wishes to advise that our Red Sparkling Ale Full Strength Beer has been crafted from Historical Hops which were discovered still growing on the banks of the Hokitika River. The original hops were grown by a pioneer Hokitika brewer, Mr William CJ Kortegast. His Crown Brewery was one of the very first West Coast Breweries. Remnants of these Kortegast hops have been incorporated into our Sparkling Red Ale, which is red in colour with low to medium bitterness and the aromatic flavour of the Hokitika hops on the finish. WJC Kortegast died in 1897 and the source of his hop supply was lost, although the memory of his famous brews lingered on. This Sparkling Ale is dedicated to WJC Kortegast and the pioneer brewers of Hokitika.

Ok then, so a traditional “red” beer. As an aside I quite like the “Beamish Red” a bit. So this intrigues me somewhat.

It’s darker in the glass that you’d think, sparkling isn’t really an indication that it’s really effervescent, I guess it means not a flat beer (like a Guinness Stout flat), but a darker “heavy” with a fizz.

Just NZ$7.00 a bottle (Pint) and it’s a decent “import” strength of 5%. A proper need a bottle opener lid too, it’s all on! The bottle is a stock standard brown, no fancy shape, ridges, or giveaways, it looks like a posh home-brew if you want to be mean-spirited.

It’s a bit earthy in taste for me to be honest, doesn’t have that creaminess of finish, or color on the head. But it does drink well in the glass, it leaves that ring of progress for each mouthful. Hows that for a technical overview of a beer! Getting a bit good at this aye.

The Wigram Brewing Company then, highly commendable ! they’re beginning to make a bit of splash in the beer world, and rightly so, and they have an array of beer that makes me think that I need to persuade someone that beer reviewer would be a good thing to have in a daily newspaper 🙂

Not getting carried away however, this is 7 out of a 10 arbitrary stars on the all important and somewhat opposite of influential pdubyah-o-meter. Would I go again? yes I would, but would I pick this first amongst equals possibly not.

oh and a bonus tip, when you’re trying to be really clever and show a caramel color of the beer by slightly tipping a full glass (as in the picture above), don’t. It never ends well. Trust me.